It frequently occurs that two or more applications installed on a computing device provide the same or similar services. For example, a user may install two or more phone calling applications, multiple email applications, or any of a variety of applications that provide overlapping capabilities.
When the user is logged into multiple applications under the same user account, it may also occur that the applications ring, alert, or otherwise surface duplicate indications of an incoming communication. From the perspective of the user experience, the duplicate indications may be annoying to the user, such as when two different email applications each surface their own indication that the same email was received.
From a more technical perspective, the duplicate indications may waste processing resources and valuable screen space. Race conditions may exist whereby multiple applications are racing to access capabilities of the user interface. For instance, two phone calling applications may compete to issue an audible ring or compete to surface a visible indication of the incoming call on a display. The competing applications may create a jarring user experience and may also waste the underlying resources of their shared environment.
Overview
Technology is disclosed herein that mitigates the occurrence of multiple applications providing duplicate indications of an incoming communication. In an implementation, a notification of an incoming communication is received. Duplicate indications of the incoming communication are avoided by determining whether an indication associated with an application will be surfaced. If not, then an indication of the incoming communication may be surfaced in association with another application. However, if the indication associated with the application will be surfaced, then the other notification associated with the other application may be suppressed.
The foregoing Overview is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Technical Disclosure. It may be understood that this Overview is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.